Father, Son Built Careers In Public Office

July 29, 1986|By Bill Bond of the Sentinel Staff

Father and son Balton ''Bal'' and Ted Cassady together served in public office for nearly 50 years.

Balton Cassady first began serving as interim sheriff in late 1908 when the governor suspended Sheriff Henry Murrhee on charges of assault and battery of a prisoner. Cassady's family lived in Sorrento but moved to Tavares after the appointment.

''But the people thought he Murrhee got a bad deal and the people re- elected Murrhee in the 1908 general elections,'' Ted Cassady said.

Balton Cassady later was elected sheriff in 1920 and served three terms before losing to W.B. Gibson in 1932. Cassady regained the office in January 1937 until his death at age 73 in 1943.

In all, he was sheriff nearly 23 years. Only Willis McCall stayed in office longer -- nearly 28 years.

''I worked with my dad as a deputy sheriff from 1937 until World War II,'' said Ted Cassady, who served as tax assessor from 1949 until he retired in 1973.

When Ted Cassady came back from the war in November 1945, he went to work with the county tax assessor's office.

''I had ideas of running for sheriff but I changed my mind and ran for tax assessor instead and won. I kept it 24 years without any opposition,'' Cassady said recently.

He worked for 37 years with the county. The year he retired, the tax assessor's title was changed to property appraiser.

Balton Cassady, who previously ran a crew that made railroad crossties, had no law enforcement experience when he first became sheriff in 1908.

Back in those days, said Ted Cassady, a sheriff's pay was based on a fee system. ''You got what you made. If you didn't make it you didn't get paid,'' he said.

Lawmen were paid so much for making arrests, feeding prisoners, serving court papers and for mileage.

''A deputy sheriff always attended county commission meetings and got a fee for that. I suppose back then the deputy was assigned to the meetings to keep commissioners from fighting or something other. You just sat there and got so much for doing it,'' said Ted Cassady.

When his father became sheriff, automobiles were scarce and people used horses and buggies.

''He told me one time about going to Groveland to get a fellow who was insane. In those days they put crazy people in jail.

''They strapped him down in the back of the wagon, and he broke loose and they had a terrible time with him going through Summerall Bayhead in Astatula. That's where the fellow broke loose.

''He didn't get away but they had a time trying to tie him back down.''

In the early 1920s and 1930s, sheriffs were responsible for pulling the lever to hang convicted murderers or traveled to Florida State Prison to pull the switch on electrocutions, said Ted Cassady.

In those days, said Cassady, who saw the last legal hanging in Lake in the early 1920s, ''you couldn't actually see the hanging, they had a curtain around the scaffold. But you could hear a . . . click . . . when they pulled the lever releasing the trap flooring.''

If there was a hanging here today, ''I'll bet you would have a swarm of people watching.''